"Mine were great. My father died ten years ago and my mother only survived him by a year. She was devoted to him."
"What did they die of?"
"My father died of a stroke and my mother of cancer."
"So much cancer about," mourned Agatha. "I must give up smoking."
"There"s a hypnotist in Mircester who"s supposed to have a good success rate. There was an article about him in the Cotswold Journal. I"ve still got it."
"Give it to me when we get back. I"ll give it a try."
"Now can you remember where Mrs Darcy lives?"
"If you go back to the centre I can guide you from there."
Soon they were cruising along the quiet street where Mary Owen"s sister lived. "Stop here," said Agatha, "and we"ll get out and walk. I"m not quite sure where it was. It was dark."
They got out and walked along. "I think about here." Agatha stopped. "There was a street lamp, and yes, a lilac tree."
"There are several lilac trees along here."
"Let"s try anyway."
But the woman who answered the door to them was not Mrs Darcy. Mrs Darcy, she volunteered, lived at number 22.
So along to number 22.
Mrs Darcy opened the door and stood looking at them contemptuously. "Oh, it"s you," she said to Agatha, "and who"s this?"
"Mr James Lacey."
Mrs Darcy was wearing tortoisesh.e.l.l-rimmed gla.s.ses and a crisp cotton dress and the great likeness to her sister was considerably diminished in the clear light of day. She was slightly shorter in height than her sister.
"What do you want?" she asked.
"We"re trying to help clear up these terrible murders," said James with a charming smile. "And Mary left her silver lighter at Mrs Raisin"s cottage. As we happened to be in Mircester, we thought we would leave it with you." He handed it over.
"So what have the murders got to do with you? I can understand this woman poking her nose in, but you are obviously a gentleman."
"I would have thought that you, of all people, would be anxious to see these murders cleared up."
"Why me?"
"Because Miss Owen is your sister."
"What"s that got to do with it?"
A woman walking her dog paused by the garden gate, listening avidly.
"You"d better come inside," said Mrs Darcy curtly.
She led the way into a sitting-room, a rather bleak room with green walls and a few dingy oil paintings.
Agatha and James sat side by side on a sofa.
Mrs Darcy stood in front of the fireplace.
"So? What"s this about Mary?"
"Your sister," said James patiently, "paid the Save Our Foxes people to demonstrate."
"There is no proof of that! Mary"s kind-hearted. She was merely contributing to a good cause."
"I find it hard to believe that Mary cared a d.a.m.n about foxes, one way or the other," said Agatha.
"I doubt if you know anything about the countryside at all." Mrs Darcy turned back to James.
"There"s no need to be so rude to Mrs Raisin," said James sharply. "In fact, I think the only reason you are being so rude is because you are worried about your sister."
"I have no reason to worry. You are mistaken. There is nothing I can tell you to help you. On the night Robert Struthers was killed, Mary was here. She had no reason to kill Robina Toynbee. In fact, the suggestion that my sister might have killed anyone is highly insulting. We had dinner together. I did not draw the curtains and several of the neighbours saw us."
"What time was that?" asked James.
"About sevenish. I do not like eating late."
"And what time did you both go to bed?"
"About ten. Mary went out to buy milk and newspapers at the corner shop in the morning, and after breakfast she left for Ca.r.s.ely. I would suggest you both leave this matter to the police. Now I would really like to get on..."
Outside, Agatha clutched James"s arm and said, "Mary had plenty of time to nip over to Ca.r.s.ely and murder Robert Struthers."
"I find it hard to believe." James shook his head. "Someone could have seen her car in Ancombe."
"She didn"t need to take her own car. She could have taken her sister"s. She could have arranged to stay with her sister to establish an alibi."
James grinned. "I know you want it to be Mary. But I think we"re wasting our time. Let"s try Fred Shaw."
"We could just check at the corner shop and make sure she did buy milk and newspapers."
"The police will have done that."
"Still..."
"Oh, all right. We"ll walk along."
The corner shop turned out to be one of the last survivors of its kind. Not only did it stock groceries and newspapers, but postcards, gifts, and bags of garden fertilizer.
There was a small wizened man behind the counter. "We are helping the police with their inquiries," said James, quickly flashing a credit card in the gloom of the shop.
"I"ve told the police all I know. Mrs Darcy"s sister was in here the morning after that murder. She bought the Express and The Daily Telegraph and a pint of milk."
"Are you sure it was Miss Owen?" asked Agatha.
"Yes, she"s been in here before. Besides she said something like, "I"m back visiting my sister. I wish she"d do her own shopping.""
"But Miss Owen and Mrs Darcy are very much alike."
"Mrs Darcy wears gla.s.ses. Her sister don"t."
"But what if Mrs Darcy had taken her spectacles off? Would you be able to tell the difference?"
"I s"pose. Miss Owen, she wears trousers all the time and Mrs Darcy wears frocks."
James tugged at Agatha"s arm. "That will be all. We won"t be troubling you further."
"Don"t you see?" said Agatha as they walked back to the car. "Mrs Darcy could have been covering for her sister. We"d better tell Bill."
"You know what I think?" said James gloomily. "I think that shopkeeper will tell Mrs Darcy of our visit and that she will complain to the police and I will get a lecture for impersonating a detective or something."
"Surely not."
"Surely yes. That shopkeeper will tell his other customers that we practically accused Mrs Darcy of covering for her sister. I hope we don"t end up in court. In fact, we"d better go and tell Bill."
Bill Wong listened to them, his face darkening.
"You"ve gone too far this time," he said. "If she makes a complaint, I can"t protect you. Just leave it alone now. I should not have encouraged you."
"But we did find out something for you," pleaded Agatha.
"No, you have done a bad thing. I cannot do anything to limit the damage. Let"s just hope we hear no more about it."
"Now, where?" asked Agatha as they stood in the car park outside the police headquarters.
"Fred Shaw?"
"I feel small," said Agatha wearily. "I feel I"ve just been ticked off by the ieacher. I feel I"m a bad person. I"ll tell you, James, I have never been so insulted by so many people as I have been since the first murder took place."
"Oh, you"re all right," said James absent-mindedly. "Let"s see Fred."
They drove out of Mircester. It was the end of August. A few leaves were already turning yellow and there was a faint chill in the air. Agatha began to feel that every winter in the country with its fogs and icy roads was another little death. She could take a holiday somewhere sunny and miss the bad weather and the frantic ho-ho-ho jollity of Christmas, but the fact was she was increasingly reluctant to leave her cats. When they die, she vowed, I"ll never keep another animal. It was no fun going away any more when part of her heart was always worrying if they were all right.
Her thoughts turned to Guy. He had at least given her a buzz when she was out with him, although the look-what-J"ue-got feeling was mitigated by the feeling that people might think her too old for him.
And what of James? Driving so competently, seemingly unfazed by the fact that they might both soon be in deep trouble. He would probably take himself off, she thought bitterly, and leave her alone to face the music.
She no longer knew what she felt for him. Relationships had to move forward, even an inch, or, like one of those videos she rented, the film came to an end and the tape began to run backwards-only, in her mind, showing not the happy scenes, but a long list of rejections.
She would see this case to the end, if it ever ended, and then detach herself from him.
They drove into Ancombe and stopped outside Fred Shaw"s shop. He was serving a customer. He looked down the shop and saw them. "Be with you shortly," he called.
He served his customer with four batteries, said goodbye, and then approached them.
"What do you want?" he asked truculently.
"Just a few questions," said James.
"I"m shutting the place up for lunchtime," he said. "Come into the back shop."
He locked the door and pulled down the blind. He jerked his head and they followed him into the back shop.
"So what do you want?" There was no offer of whisky this time.
"We feel that life in Ancombe will never really go back to normal until these murders have been solved," began James.
"So what"s that got to do with me? The police are working on it."
"Yes, but you are a man of business, a shrewd man," said Agatha quickly.
The truculence left Fred"s face. "I do see a lot of things other people don"t," he said in a mollified voice.
"I heard something about Andy Stiggs being in love with Mrs Struthers. Mrs Struthers must have been younger than her husband."
"Yes, she was. Andy also thought he should have been chairman of the council as well. He will be now."
"Do you think he could have murdered Robina as well?" asked Agatha.
"Here now. I never said he murdered Robert. But he was always around Robina"s. Maybe he saw something."
"As Andy Stiggs was against the water company, that must have soured his relations with Robina," said Agatha.
"I think he thought he could persuade her to change her mind."
Agatha looked at him thoughtfully, wondering when she could slip in a question about his speech. Instead she said, "Was there ever a Mrs Stiggs?"
"Yes, he married Ethel Fairweather on the rebound right after Robert got married and lived unhappily right up until her death. She was a shrew. In some way, he blamed Robert for his rotten marriage, know what I mean?"
"Where does he live?" asked James. "I have his address but I"m not sure exactly where his cottage is."
"Second on the left past the church."
"You never called to see me with your speech," said Agatha.
"What speech?"
"The one you were going to make at the fete."
"When I heard that pop group was coming, I knew you wouldn"t want me."